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Our History

The history of Mount Pleasant is, in many ways, the history of modern Australian winemaking. Established in 1921 by Maurice O’Shea, a man of rare vision and uncompromising standards, ours is a story of exceptional vineyard sites, pioneering winemaking and a legacy that continues to define what Australian wine can be.

Maurice O’Shea

Founder

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Maurice O’Shea was as compelling a figure as the wines he produced. Born in Sydney in 1897 to an Irish father with a formidable palate and a French mother steeped in the traditions of the old world, his connection to wine seemed almost inevitable. When his father passed away, Maurice was fifteen. A year later, he was on a boat to France.

He spent six years studying viticulture and oenology before returning to Australia with a rare ability to identify exceptional sites and bring them to their full potential. He worked without electricity, refrigeration or anything beyond a horse and cart, and yet his standards never wavered.

Those who knew him spoke of a fanatical perfectionism that produced wines of elegance, balance and extraordinary longevity. His influence on Australian wine was profound. As David Wynn, founder of Wynns Coonawarra Estate, said: “He established the standards for the Australian wine industry.” O’Shea inspired a generation of winemakers, among them Penfolds’ Max Schubert and Hunter Valley legend Max Lake. Maurice passed away in 1956, but his legacy endures in every vintage we produce. As Campbell Mattinson wrote: “The art of turning grapes to wine, for Maurice O’Shea, was not a recipe: it was a sea of possibilities.”

Historic portraits by Max Dupain (1911–1992). One of Australia’s most celebrated photographers, Dupain created this remarkable visual record of Mount Pleasant and Maurice O’Shea which can be viewed throughout our Cellar Door.

Our Vineyards

Halliday’s last O’Shea

WRITTEN BY CAMPBELL MATTINSON

ONE DAY IN 2009 JAMES Halliday asked me if I’d join him for dinner. He wanted to share with me his last bottle of Maurice O’Shea shiraz.

As I read the invitation it was suddenly as if many different dreams were all happening at once. The idea, simply, that James Halliday might invite me to share a treasured bottle of rare wine. But also: that this wine had been made by the hands of Maurice O’Shea himself. In the writing of the book The Wine Hunter I’d developed an affection for winemaker Maurice O’Shea that is difficult to explain.

O’Shea died immediately after vintage, in 1956, a dozen years before I was born. But in the process of writing this book I’d spent months and years trying to imagine my way into Maurice’s head, and through that time my admiration and respect for him had grown ridiculously large. Maurice O’Sea, to me, was the one. He lit the flame. He refused to compromise on wine’s essential beauty when everything suggested that he should. O’Shea’s was central to Australian wine but also, to the soul of wine itself.

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